


Day 4

by Summerwolf



Series: Whumptober 2019 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Human shield, Hurt Peter, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Whumptober, Worried May Parker (Spider-Man), no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 09:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20889575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Summerwolf/pseuds/Summerwolf
Summary: Day 4 - human shieldPeter swallowed. He didn't quite know how this was going to go. Either he would be fine, he would continue helping people and would be back at school on Monday, or he would never wake up and leave everyone he cared about to mourn.





	Day 4

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!!  
Hope you enjoy!!

4 - human shield

Peter swallowed. He didn't quite know how this was going to go. Either he would be fine, he would continue helping people and would be back at school on Monday, or he would never wake up and leave everyone he cared about to mourn.

Obviously though, he was Spiderman. He couldn't let the families of these children mourn just so that his family didn't have to. The civilian always came first.

It was rather odd. He was being quite matter of fact about the whole thing. Anyone would think he didn't care if he lived or died. He did care, but he also knew what he was signing up for when he started this. He could save these children - so he would - and then even if he died, his life would not be wasted.

Red pulled the trigger and Peter stood taller. He was ready. The children were safe. And if he never felt again - well that was a problem for later.

"Goodbye Spiderman."

~ Earlier That Day ~

"Hey Peter!" May said with a smile as Peter walked into the kitchen, "You going to be crawling tonight?"

Crawling was the code they had come up with for spidermanning. It wasn't exactly a genius code word - but it did its job and was just cryptic enough to stop anyone from figuring anything out.

"Yep, do you know what time you'll be back from the hospital?"

"Not until late, it depends on how many people are off. Even if I'm not back, your curfew is still 2am, ok."

May had been taking longer and longer shifts at the moment. She said that Peter may save people by being Spiderman, but she saved people by working in a hospital. Peter understood, he had to get his desire to help people from somewhere.

"Ok. I'll be back as soon after 2 as I can. I'm not just going to drop everything and go home on the dot."

"I know you won't. Just, stay safe. Remember, I love you, you better get back in one piece."

Peter rolled his eyes. May said this every time he went out crawling. Every time. Sure, he got injured from time to time, but he was normally fine.

"I will, I promise."

~ Later That Night ~

Thwip

Thwip

Thwip

Peter swung through the streets. He felt free. Spidermanning always brought him a feeling of freedom when he swung.

He loved saving people. He loved knowing that he had helped. He loved knowing that he had changed people's lives, changed their fate.

"Hey Karen." He said to his AI "anyone around who needs help?"

There was a thoughtful whirring sound from Karen as she ran a search before beeping.

"There is nothing on the scanners that the police can't handle. Your curfew is in 5 minutes so you should probably head home."

Peter nodded, knowing that Karen would be able to pick up on his head movements.

He quickly started heading back in the direction of home, swinging through the streets and enjoying his last bit of freedom before he headed home and had to get ready for school tomorrow.

"Peter?" Came a voice from the Comms in his mask.

"Tony?" Peter was slightly surprised at hearing Tony's voice. Normally at this time at night - or morning more like - Tony was either asleep or in his Lab. Definitely not out and about in his suits. That was Peter's job. He did the streets, Tony did he end of the world stuff.

"Yep, do you have time to swing by, there appears to be a hostage situation which the police can't deal with, I'm heading in that direction but can you come for back up?"

"I just had Karen perform a scan?" He said confused. Surely a hostage situation would show up on the scan and Karen would have sent him there.

"It won't be on the scanners yet, as of right now, it's off the books. I'm sending the police a call right now but I need you to head over as a backup."

"Sure, I'll be right over, send the coordinates."

Peter was always shocked when Tony sought him out for help. It was strange, Tony was like a dad to him and actually seemed to want to spend time with the spider kid. He had May, and he loved her to bits, but he had never expected another father figure, especially after the first two had died. He had thought that that was it. Cruel circumstance had ripped any hope for a dad away from him. And then Tony came along.

"Sending right now."

Karen beeped to show that she had received them, so Peter quickly said "Set the coordinates, I can head home after."

"Ok Peter, don't take too long though, you don't want to be too late for your curfew."

"Don't worry, I'll be back, before anyone realises it."

Peter quickly followed the course which Karen plotted in front of his eyes, making sure not to fall but still going quickly enough that he would get to the incident in time.

As soon as he arrived at the house he jumped through one of the upstairs windows. He could hear Tony moving around downstairs, he appeared to be talking to someone, so Peter focused his attention in the 6 children in front of him.

They were all fairly young, the eldest probably 8 and the youngest about 5. Peter had no idea what they were doing here - in the middle of the night and all that - but they were clearly all scared.

"Hello there." He said gently to all the children "what are you all doing here?"

The 8 year old walked forwards, a star struck look in his eyes, "you're Spiderman!"

"Yes I am and I'm here to save you, what's going on."

"The men - the bad men - grabbed us. I don't know what they want."

The child had started sounding panicked so Peter quickly cut him off.

"It's ok, I'm here, I'll save you. What's your name?"

"I'm Asa." Asa replied, looking overjoyed that Spiderman now knew his name.

"Well Asa. Nice to meet you. It'll be ok, I promise."

Peter carefully listened to the house. There was Tony talking to a man, but only one man. The child said men, that would mean more than one, if he were to believe the child. So where were the others?

He narrowed down his senses, focusing on his hearing and searching for more people. It only took him a moment, for almost instantly he heard the sound of a gun cocking and a man breathing.

It was coming from outside the door.

"Get behind me, quick." He hissed at the crowd of children, herding then behind his back.

"Hello Spiderman." A voice said as a man walked into the room, "I'm Red, it's nice to meet you."

Peter looked carefully at the gun, loaded and pointed at him and the children, "yeah? I wish I could say the same to you."

"Oh Spiderman. The same dry humour and sharp wit you were rumours to have." The man - Red - deadpanned.

Peter couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. Right at that moment he couldn't register anything other than a loaded gun being pointed at him, 6 children behind him and Tony distracted downstairs.

He didn't know exactly what caused it, but as soon as he realisation set in that he had to save the kids, Asa and the others, he calmed right down. It didn't matter if he died, he just needed to save them.

Even if it meant being a human shield, he would protect them. Hopefully the gunshot would alert Tony to the man and Tony would be able to run up and stop Red from hurting anyone. Anyone else anyway.

"Goodbye Spiderman."

Peter gasped as he felt the cool bite of the metal. Then the burning pain as it buried itself into his chest.

He could hear screaming. He didn't know whether it was coming from himself, the children or both. It didn't really matter to him.

He instantly felt his eyesight start to blur but he held himself up, he needed to shield the children until Tony came.

He was a couple of seconds away from kneeling over when Tony burst into the room. He took one look around before blasting Red with a repulser. Enough to knock him out, not enough to kill. He quickly ran over and grabbed Peter into his arms. Peter whimpered slightly at the slight jostleing of the bullet before he whispered out.

"The children."

Tony nodded as he gathered Peter up into his arms.

"Come on," Tony said gently to the children, walking down the stairs making sure they were following.

Peter hurt. Every part of his being hurt. But he knew that Tony would keep every child in this area safe, him included, even if that just meant making sure he didn't die alone.

He was kind of glad. If he was ever going to die when out spidermanning - he was glad Tony was here.

"Don't you die on me." Tony hissed as Peter's eye lids started to flutter, "hang in there kid."

Peer didn't want to die. He didn't. But he was just so tired. He just wanted to sleep. But he also wanted to do as Tony said, so that's what he would do. He would suck it up and hang in there.

He knew it wasn't that easy. That he had no real control - however much he wished he did - but he could try. And trying was all he could do.

The police arrived almost as soon as they stepped out of the house - into the biting wind of the night. Tony quickly sent the children with them - Peter detachedly feeling glad that they would be safe - before gathering Peter tighter and flying to the medbay.

Peter didn't quite know when, but at some point he must have passed out, either from pain or from blood loss.

His head hurt and it felt like he was swimming out of a strangely twisty dream as he emerged to the surface of reality.

He was definitely in the medbay, the blinding lights and chemical smells spelling that out for him. Tony appeared to be curled up into the chair next to him, but as Peter tried to sit up, then hissed in pain at moving, Tony stirred.

"Peter?"

"Yea." Peter coughed out, his voice rough.

"You're ok!" Tony gasped pulling him into a hug, mindful of his injuries.

"The children?" Peter asked, his voice breaking slightly. They needed to be safe, they needed to be. He couldn't quite remember what had happened after he had been shot - his last memory being acting as a human shield - but they needed to be ok. It would make all this pain worth it.

"They're safe. You saved them." Tony assured.

Peter let out a sigh of relief. It was worth it. No matter what happened or would happen. It was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!  
Hope you enjoyed!!  
Have an amazing day/night!!


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